1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to an electronic vaporiser system. One example of an electronic vaporiser system is an e-cigarette, also known as a vapestick, inhalator, modding kit, personal vaporiser (PV), advanced personal vaporiser (APVs) or electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS). In this specification, we will typically use ‘PV’ or ‘vaporiser’ as the generic term for an electronic vaporiser, namely the unit that the user actually places to their lips and inhales from. An electronic vaporiser system includes this unit. An electronic vaporiser can deliver nicotine as well as other substances, and can be a consumer electronics device, or a medicinally approved nicotine drug delivery system.
A PV, in the e-cigarette context, vapourises ‘e-liquid’ or a vaping substance to produce a non-pressurised vapour or mist for inhalation for pleasure or stress-relief, replicating or replacing the experience of smoking a cigarette. An ‘e-liquid’ or vaping substance is a liquid (or gel or other state) from which vapour or mist for inhalation can be generated and whose primary purpose is to deliver nicotine or other compounds, such as medicines. PVs are therefore mass-market consumer products that can be equivalent to cigarettes, and are then typically used by smokers as part of a cigarette reduction or cessation program. The main ingredients of e-liquids for vaping are usually a mix of propylene glycol and glycerine. E-liquids can include various flavourings and also come with varying strengths of nicotine; users on a nicotine reduction or cessation program can hence choose decreasing concentrations of nicotine, including at the limit zero concentration nicotine e-liquid. The term ‘e-liquid’ will be used in this specification as the generic term for any kind of vaping substance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional designs of re-fillable e-cigarette are somewhat complex because re-filling with e-liquid generally requires the user to unscrew the e-cigarette and to then manually drip onto an atomizing coil a small quantity of e-liquid. The overall user interaction with conventional re-fillable e-cigarettes (covering all aspects of how the user controls, re-fills, re-charges and generally interacts with the device) can therefore be complex and this is reflected in their design, which is often rather technical, with various control buttons. The overall user interaction is rarely intuitively clear. This is very different from the straightforward and simple (and, to smokers, deeply attractive) ritual of opening a pack of conventional cigarettes and lighting up. The complex user interaction that characterizes conventional refillable e-cigarettes has none of the simplicity or attractive ritual of opening a packet of cigarettes and lighting up. Designing an e-cigarette system that replicates the simplicity of a conventional cigarette is a considerable challenge but is we believe key to the mass-market adoption of e-cigarettes by smokers, and is hence key to delivering on their considerable public health potential.